Athletics were an integral part of life for the ancient Greeks. Greek society was heavily influenced by religion and the idea of arete, both of which figured prominently in early athletic festivals and continued to evolve throughout Greek history.
Origin
It is unclear exactly where or how athletics developed in ancient Greece. The influence on early Greek civilization from pre-Greek Minoan and proto-Greek Mycenaean civilizations is seen in art, language, architecture and culture, but their connection to athletics is lacking. An alternate explanation offered by some scholars is that the origins of Greek athletics can be linked to the Dorian invasion that precipitated the end of Mycenaean civilization on mainland Greece around the turn of the first millennium B.C. (Miller 26) After the migration of many Mycenaean Greeks to Ionia, on the west coast of Asia Minor, Doric influence on the Peloponnesos became prominent and several warlike, highly competitive civilizations, like the Spartans, took root in the region. It is here that Greek athletics took shape and in the following centuries more refined athletic competitions began to appear. It is likely that early athletics fulfilled multiple functions such as funerary rites, hero cult worship, military training and festivals of fertility or sacrifice. (Hawhee 113) One of the earliest examples of this is the funeral games for Patroklus in Homer's Illiad, written around 700 B.C. but depicting events in the Trojan War that may have occurred centuries earlier. Achilles commands his troops "Charioteers in fast formation... a cortege will mourn the man with teams and chariots. These are the solemn honors owed the dead." (559; 6-10) A series of games involving prizes for the winners and runners up follow in order to honor the dead friend of the Greek hero, Achilles.
The Games
Two programs of organized games developed over time.
Stephanitic Games
The stephanitic games, or “crown” games, were the central focus of ancient Greek athletics. The games are so-called because of the prizes that were awarded to the winners of the events in the games; crowns of laurel, celery, pine and olive. The Olympic Games were the first to be held, beginning in 776 BC in Olympia to honor Zeus, and consisted of one event, the one stade race, a roughly 200 meter footrace. The schedule of events within the Olympic Games expanded over time and more games were added over the years. The Pythian Games began in 586 BC in Delphi in honor of Apollo, the Isthmian Games in 580 BC in Isthmia in honor of Poseidon and the Nemean Games in 537 BC also in honor of Zeus.
The Olympic and Pythian Games were held every four years while the Nemean and Isthmian Games were held every two years. This made for a four-year athletic cycle, or periodos, within which each competition was held. (Miller 112)
480 BC
July – August
Olympic
479 BC
July – August
Nemean
478 BC
April – May
Isthmian
478 BC
July – August
Pythian
477 BC
July – August
Nemean
476 BC
April – May
Isthmian
476 BC
July – August
Olympic
Chrematitic Games
The chrematitic games, chremata meaning money, were games in which athletes competed directly for cash and/or valuable prizes. These games, though not as prestigious as the stephanitic games, were common and attracted many of the best athletes of the time, although some were restricted to citizen-athletes of the host city. The chrematitic games were put on annually by either a religious sanctuary or a city-state with the more well-known games put on by larger sanctuaries or city-states that offered more prize money and, therefore, attracted more prominent athletes. The prizes included sums of money, gold crowns, livestock and vases of olive oil and were highly valuable, possibly worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s equivalent. In some cases, such as the Panathenaic Games, prizes were awarded to the runners-up in various events.
One of the most well known of the chrematitic games were the Panathenaic Games in Athens. They were put on annually in honor of Athena and were originally open only to Athenian citizens. In 566 BC the games were opened to all Greeks on every fourth year. These Panhellenic games became known as the Greater Panathenaia, versus the Athenian-only Lesser Panathenaia.
Agones
In ancient times the athla was the prize, hence athletics were the competition for the prizes and athletes those competing in the competitions. The events, or agones, more accurately translated as "struggles," were divided into three main categories.
Gymnikos
The original, and arguably the most important, events in any of the games were the gymnikos, naked, events in which all athletes competed naked. The practice of competing naked most likely began early on in the games and the exact origin of the nude competition is unknown. These events included footraces, wrestling, boxing, pankration, and pentathlon.
Footraces
The original event in the first Olympic Games in 776 BC was the stadion, a roughly 200 meter sprint. The diaulos, or double-stadion, was added to the Olympics in 724 BC and the dolichos, a long-distance race of 20 to 24 stades, was added in 720 BC. The hoplitodromos, or race in armor, 2 stades in length, was added in 520 BC. The ancient unit of measure was not exactly standardized, so lengths of the racetracks varied slightly. The track at Olympia was 192 meters while the track at Delphi was 178 meters. (Miller 32)
Wrestling
Wrestling, or pale, was the first non-footrace added to the Olympic Games in 708 BC. It involved two wrestlers, starting from a standing position, attempting to throw the opponent to the ground. Whoever threw their opponent down three times was declared victor. Opponents were drawn at random until only two wrestlers were left competing for the championship.
Boxing
Boxing, or pyx, was added to the Olympic Games in 688 BC. Like wrestling, opponents were chosen at random. There were no rounds or time limits and the match continued until one opponent either quit or was unable to continue the match. Early boxers wore a form of boxing glove, called himantes, which consisted of leather strips wrapped around the hands and wrists. By the 4th century BC the himantes had evolved into a fleece-lined piece of leather covering most of the forearm, wrist and hand and it included a hard piece of leather covering the knuckles.
Pankration
Pankration, or “all-powerful,” was introduced into the Olympics in 648 BC and combined wrestling and boxing into the most violent of the ancient athletic events. Herakles, the Panhellenic hero known for wrestling the Nemean lion, was the sports patron. Like boxing, there were no rounds or time limits and the victor was decided when one opponent could not or would not continue fighting. Punching, kicking, choking and all other forms of offensive and defensive maneuvers were allowed. Only biting and eye-gouging were prohibited.
Pentathlon
The pentathlon consisted of five different events; the stadion race, wrestling, long jump, discus throw, and javelin throw. The stadion race and wrestling, as discussed earlier, were performed in the same manner as the normal races except they were only contested amongst pentathletes. The discus, or diskos, and javelin, or akon, throws were performed much as they are today with similar equipment and techniques. The long jump, or halma, however, was distinctly different from today's competition. Athletes used weights in each hand, called halteres, to create momentum in an attempt to jump farther. The exact technique for their use is unknown.
Hippikos
Hippokos, or horse, events were added to the Olympic program in 680 BC with the four-horse chariot race, or tethrippon, being the original event. The horseback race, or keles, was added in 648 BC and the two-horse chariot race was added in 408 BC. Early chariots were light vehicles made of wicker and metal and attached to the horse teams by a yoke that connected to the inside two horses. The horses raced four across in the tethrippon with the charioteer controlling them by two sets of reins. One set of reins was for the horses on the left and one for the horses on the right, allowing the charioteer to rein in the “inside” (left) horses and spur on the “outside” (right) horses when making left turns around the turn post of the track. The two-horse chariot races are considered to have been conducted in the same fashion, though evidence is scarce since it was a much later addition to the games. The horseback race was conducted with minimal equipment. There were no saddle or stirrups, just a set of reins connected to a bit in the horses mouth and a riding whip.
Although the hippokos events were popular, they were thought by many to have less to do with the idea of genuine competition and more to do with wealth and spectacle. For one thing, horses were expensive to raise, train and maintain. The charioteers and jockeys were rarely ever the owners of the horses they raced and many may have been slaves. Successful horses, like racehorses today, were highly prized and valued, but the real winners of the races, also like today, were the owners of the horses. In some cases, city-states would sponsor horses and would be listed as the “victors” of these races if their horses won.
Mousikos
Mousikos, or musical, events were integral to the Pythian and Isthmian Games and eventually became part of the Nemean Games, although they were never incorporated into the Olympic Games. Specific musical events included lyre singing, with a musician singing while playing a harp-like instrument, and the aulos, or flute, competition. The winner of the aulos competition at the Pythian Games was rewarded with playing the flute to accompany the pentathlon competition at the following Olympic Games. The most striking deviation between the mousikos events and other events of the games was the subjectivity involved. The winners of the competition were named by a panel of judges, like in modern style-based Olympic competitions, thus lacking the purely objective competition of the gymnikos or hippikos.
Training was performed in the gymnasion and these buildings could be found in every city-state. The leader of the gymnasion was the gymnasiarchos who was elected annually and was in charge of the building, equipment, staff and lesson plans of the gymnasion. The gymnasiarchos was assisted by a paidonomos who was appointed to the post and was responsible for deciding which students had satisfactorily completed his training and could move onto the next level of training.
Women in Athletics
The Heraean Festival was the main showcase for women athletes in ancient Greece. It consisted of three footraces and, unlike their male counterparts, female athletes did not compete naked. Although women were systematically excluded from much of the male-dominated world of athletics, there is one example of a woman claiming a victory at the Olympic Games; Kyniska, a Spartan woman who won the chariot race in 392 BC. (Scanlon 20)
Her brother, in an attempt to prove a lack of true competition in the hippokos events, persuaded her to enter the race. His argument was that if a woman could win the event it would prove there was no skill involved and that it all depended on the wealth of the breeders who owned the horses. (Reese 58) She won the event and was crowned victor and commemorated with a bronze statue at Olympia.
Bibliography
Brooks, Jason. "Lecture 6: Competition, The Gods and Iconography." Humanities 111. Pepperdine University. Malibu, CA. 14 June 2011.
Hawhee, Debra. Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece. Austin, U Texas P, 2004. Print.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.
Miller, Stephen G. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, CT, Yale UP, 2004. Print.
Reese, Anne, and Irini Vallera-RIckerson. Athletries: The Untold Story of Ancient Greek Women Athletes. Costa Mesa, CA, Nightowl, 2002. Print.
Scanlon, Thomas. Eros and Greek Athletics. New York, Oxford UP, 2002. Print
Unknown. Athletic Trainer, Etruscan, c. 500 B.C. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, CA
Unknown. Victorious Youth, Greek, c. 300 B.C. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, CA
Athletics in Ancient Greece
Table of Contents
Origin
It is unclear exactly where or how athletics developed in ancient Greece. The influence on early Greek civilization from pre-Greek Minoan and proto-Greek Mycenaean civilizations is seen in art, language, architecture and culture, but their connection to athletics is lacking. An alternate explanation offered by some scholars is that the origins of Greek athletics can be linked to the Dorian invasion that precipitated the end of Mycenaean civilization on mainland Greece around the turn of the first millennium B.C. (Miller 26) After the migration of many Mycenaean Greeks to Ionia, on the west coast of Asia Minor, Doric influence on the Peloponnesos became prominent and several warlike, highly competitive civilizations, like the Spartans, took root in the region. It is here that Greek athletics took shape and in the following centuries more refined athletic competitions began to appear. It is likely that early athletics fulfilled multiple functions such as funerary rites, hero cult worship, military training and festivals of fertility or sacrifice. (Hawhee 113) One of the earliest examples of this is the funeral games for Patroklus in Homer's Illiad, written around 700 B.C. but depicting events in the Trojan War that may have occurred centuries earlier. Achilles commands his troops "Charioteers in fast formation... a cortege will mourn the man with teams and chariots. These are the solemn honors owed the dead." (559; 6-10) A series of games involving prizes for the winners and runners up follow in order to honor the dead friend of the Greek hero, Achilles.The Games
Two programs of organized games developed over time.Stephanitic Games
The stephanitic games, or “crown” games, were the central focus of ancient Greek athletics. The games are so-called because of the prizes that were awarded to the winners of the events in the games; crowns of laurel, celery, pine and olive. The Olympic Games were the first to be held, beginning in 776 BC in Olympia to honor Zeus, and consisted of one event, the one stade race, a roughly 200 meter footrace. The schedule of events within the Olympic Games expanded over time and more games were added over the years. The Pythian Games began in 586 BC in Delphi in honor of Apollo, the Isthmian Games in 580 BC in Isthmia in honor of Poseidon and the Nemean Games in 537 BC also in honor of Zeus.Chrematitic Games
The chrematitic games, chremata meaning money, were games in which athletes competed directly for cash and/or valuable prizes. These games, though not as prestigious as the stephanitic games, were common and attracted many of the best athletes of the time, although some were restricted to citizen-athletes of the host city. The chrematitic games were put on annually by either a religious sanctuary or a city-state with the more well-known games put on by larger sanctuaries or city-states that offered more prize money and, therefore, attracted more prominent athletes. The prizes included sums of money, gold crowns, livestock and vases of olive oil and were highly valuable, possibly worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s equivalent. In some cases, such as the Panathenaic Games, prizes were awarded to the runners-up in various events.One of the most well known of the chrematitic games were the Panathenaic Games in Athens. They were put on annually in honor of Athena and were originally open only to Athenian citizens. In 566 BC the games were opened to all Greeks on every fourth year. These Panhellenic games became known as the Greater Panathenaia, versus the Athenian-only Lesser Panathenaia.
Agones
In ancient times the athla was the prize, hence athletics were the competition for the prizes and athletes those competing in the competitions. The events, or agones, more accurately translated as "struggles," were divided into three main categories.Gymnikos
The original, and arguably the most important, events in any of the games were the gymnikos, naked, events in which all athletes competed naked. The practice of competing naked most likely began early on in the games and the exact origin of the nude competition is unknown. These events included footraces, wrestling, boxing, pankration, and pentathlon.Footraces
The original event in the first Olympic Games in 776 BC was the stadion, a roughly 200 meter sprint. The diaulos, or double-stadion, was added to the Olympics in 724 BC and the dolichos, a long-distance race of 20 to 24 stades, was added in 720 BC. The hoplitodromos, or race in armor, 2 stades in length, was added in 520 BC. The ancient unit of measure was not exactly standardized, so lengths of the racetracks varied slightly. The track at Olympia was 192 meters while the track at Delphi was 178 meters. (Miller 32)Wrestling
Wrestling, or pale, was the first non-footrace added to the Olympic Games in 708 BC. It involved two wrestlers, starting from a standing position, attempting to throw the opponent to the ground. Whoever threw their opponent down three times was declared victor. Opponents were drawn at random until only two wrestlers were left competing for the championship.Boxing
Boxing, or pyx, was added to the Olympic Games in 688 BC. Like wrestling, opponents were chosen at random. There were no rounds or time limits and the match continued until one opponent either quit or was unable to continue the match. Early boxers wore a form of boxing glove, called himantes, which consisted of leather strips wrapped around the hands and wrists. By the 4th century BC the himantes had evolved into a fleece-lined piece of leather covering most of the forearm, wrist and hand and it included a hard piece of leather covering the knuckles.Pankration
Pankration, or “all-powerful,” was introduced into the Olympics in 648 BC and combined wrestling and boxing into the most violent of the ancient athletic events. Herakles, the Panhellenic hero known for wrestling the Nemean lion, was the sports patron. Like boxing, there were no rounds or time limits and the victor was decided when one opponent could not or would not continue fighting. Punching, kicking, choking and all other forms of offensive and defensive maneuvers were allowed. Only biting and eye-gouging were prohibited.Pentathlon
The pentathlon consisted of five different events; the stadion race, wrestling, long jump, discus throw, and javelin throw. The stadion race and wrestling, as discussed earlier, were performed in the same manner as the normal races except they were only contested amongst pentathletes. The discus, or diskos, and javelin, or akon, throws were performed much as they are today with similar equipment and techniques. The long jump, or halma, however, was distinctly different from today's competition. Athletes used weights in each hand, called halteres, to create momentum in an attempt to jump farther. The exact technique for their use is unknown.Hippikos
Hippokos, or horse, events were added to the Olympic program in 680 BC with the four-horse chariot race, or tethrippon, being the original event. The horseback race, or keles, was added in 648 BC and the two-horse chariot race was added in 408 BC. Early chariots were light vehicles made of wicker and metal and attached to the horse teams by a yoke that connected to the inside two horses. The horses raced four across in the tethrippon with the charioteer controlling them by two sets of reins. One set of reins was for the horses on the left and one for the horses on the right, allowing the charioteer to rein in the “inside” (left) horses and spur on the “outside” (right) horses when making left turns around the turn post of the track. The two-horse chariot races are considered to have been conducted in the same fashion, though evidence is scarce since it was a much later addition to the games. The horseback race was conducted with minimal equipment. There were no saddle or stirrups, just a set of reins connected to a bit in the horses mouth and a riding whip.Although the hippokos events were popular, they were thought by many to have less to do with the idea of genuine competition and more to do with wealth and spectacle. For one thing, horses were expensive to raise, train and maintain. The charioteers and jockeys were rarely ever the owners of the horses they raced and many may have been slaves. Successful horses, like racehorses today, were highly prized and valued, but the real winners of the races, also like today, were the owners of the horses. In some cases, city-states would sponsor horses and would be listed as the “victors” of these races if their horses won.
Mousikos
Mousikos, or musical, events were integral to the Pythian and Isthmian Games and eventually became part of the Nemean Games, although they were never incorporated into the Olympic Games. Specific musical events included lyre singing, with a musician singing while playing a harp-like instrument, and the aulos, or flute, competition. The winner of the aulos competition at the Pythian Games was rewarded with playing the flute to accompany the pentathlon competition at the following Olympic Games. The most striking deviation between the mousikos events and other events of the games was the subjectivity involved. The winners of the competition were named by a panel of judges, like in modern style-based Olympic competitions, thus lacking the purely objective competition of the gymnikos or hippikos.Training
Training was performed in the gymnasion and these buildings could be found in every city-state. The leader of the gymnasion was the gymnasiarchos who was elected annually and was in charge of the building, equipment, staff and lesson plans of the gymnasion. The gymnasiarchos was assisted by a paidonomos who was appointed to the post and was responsible for deciding which students had satisfactorily completed his training and could move onto the next level of training.
Women in Athletics
The Heraean Festival was the main showcase for women athletes in ancient Greece. It consisted of three footraces and, unlike their male counterparts, female athletes did not compete naked. Although women were systematically excluded from much of the male-dominated world of athletics, there is one example of a woman claiming a victory at the Olympic Games; Kyniska, a Spartan woman who won the chariot race in 392 BC. (Scanlon 20)Her brother, in an attempt to prove a lack of true competition in the hippokos events, persuaded her to enter the race. His argument was that if a woman could win the event it would prove there was no skill involved and that it all depended on the wealth of the breeders who owned the horses. (Reese 58) She won the event and was crowned victor and commemorated with a bronze statue at Olympia.
Bibliography
Brooks, Jason. "Lecture 6: Competition, The Gods and Iconography." Humanities 111. Pepperdine University. Malibu, CA. 14 June 2011.
Hawhee, Debra. Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece. Austin, U Texas P, 2004. Print.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.
Miller, Stephen G. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, CT, Yale UP, 2004. Print.
Reese, Anne, and Irini Vallera-RIckerson. Athletries: The Untold Story of Ancient Greek Women Athletes. Costa Mesa, CA, Nightowl, 2002. Print.
Scanlon, Thomas. Eros and Greek Athletics. New York, Oxford UP, 2002. Print
Unknown. Athletic Trainer, Etruscan, c. 500 B.C. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, CA
Unknown. Victorious Youth, Greek, c. 300 B.C. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, CA